1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to emergency eye wash fountains used for flushing foreign materials or irritants from a worker's eyes on an emergency basis at industrial work stations. More particularly, the invention relates to such devices which include an optically transparent housing so that the quantity and condition of the contents can be observed without opening the container. A further aspect of the invention relates to an improved valve arrangement for use in eye wash fountains.
2. Background Art
Various emergency eye wash fountains are provided at industrial locations where workers may be subjected to accidental introduction in their eyes of foreign matter or irritants. Many of such devices operate by providing an elevated reservoir of eye wash liquid which can be made to flow by gravity at a sustained flow rate for at least fifteen (15) minutes. Examples of such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,798 issued Mar. 22, 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,146 issued Dec. 14, 1982 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,283 issued Nov. 21, 1989, all to John R. Liautaud.
Such devices have heretofore been formed of a plastic material such as polyethylene or polypropylene which is formed into a container by either blow molding or rotational molding. The housings have heretofore been generally opaque or at best translucent, and thus, incorporation of a visible gage of such as float gage has been necessary to indicate whether the supply of liquid in the reservoir is adequate for safety purposes. Although such materials have been obtainable in transparent form for other uses, because of the thickness required for eye wash fountain reservoirs, it has not been possible to produce transparent housings using such materials of construction.
In addition to inability to view the liquid level of the contents it has been found that contamination or microbe growth can on occasion occur within the containers due to the presence of impurities in the water supply, or foreign matter introduced during inspection and the like. Thus, such fountains heretofore available have the added disadvantage of shielding from view the growth of such microbes or presence of other contaminants, which may be harmful to the eyes.